Mario vs. Donkey Kong: The 35th Anniversary Marathon

Yes, you read quite right. Last time, I was talking about returning to the roots... well, let's up the ante a little. I'm returning to the two franchises where I started from back in 2010, for two simple reasons. One, come July 9th, the original Donkey Kong arcade game created by Shigeru Miyamoto turns 35. Second, I've played a lot of Mario and Donkey Kong games lately, with my quite recent acquisition of the Nintendo 3DS and the even more recent acquisition of the Wii U. 35 years, with both main characters of Donkey Kong still very much alive and kicking (though mostly in their own separate divisions nowadays) - that's a LONG time, and me, a Nintendo kid and retro gamer to the core cannot leave this celebration unnoticed. Of course, most retro games in these franchises were already covered a long time ago - it's time to focus on some choice efforts from the last 16 years. I'm very excited to return to these two long-standing favourites of mine and see how the years have treated them during my time apart from Nintendo.

With luck, the marathon starts tonight. With almost as much luck, it starts tomorrow night, and will last until July 9th (give or take, June 28-July 8 is a busy time for me), and it is then I will write a bit more definitive speech for modern gaming's eldest arch rivals and the celebration of their big day.